aaag-topic-selection
Use when deciding whether a topic fits the Annals of the American Association of Geographers and which of its four areas to target. Tests geographic significance and area fit; it does not design the study or write the paper.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill aaag-topic-selection --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Topic Selection & Area Fit (aaag-topic-selection) The Annals is the AAG's **broad four-area flagship**. A topic earns a place by being *geographic* — space, place, scale, region, or spatial process is constitutive of the question — and by speaking to one of the journal's areas with enough reach that geographers outside that subfield see why it matters. ## When to trigger - Choosing a project, or deciding if a draft fits the Annals vs. a specialty venue - A reviewer or colleague said "this isn't really geography" or "this is too narrow" - Unsure whether to declare Geographic Methods, Human, Nature-Society, Physical, or General Geography ## The two-part fit test 1. **Geographic-ness.** Could you delete every spatial/place/scale element and keep the argument? If yes, it is not yet a geography paper — the geography must do theoretical work, not just locate data. 2. **Area reach.** Within the declared area, would a geographer in a *neighboring* subfield see the stake? An over-narrow result that only its sub-sub-field cares about is an Annals off-fit. ## Declare the area (it routes the paper and sets the bar) | Area | Core of a strong topic | Off-fit signal | |------|------------------
- When to trigger
- The two-part fit test
- Declare the area (it routes the paper and sets the bar)
- Calibrating ambition (Annals vs. specialty venue)
- Sibling-journal guard (do not mis-pitch)
- Worked micro-example (illustrative)
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the aaag-topic-selection skill do?
Use when deciding whether a topic fits the Annals of the American Association of Geographers and which of its four areas to target. Tests geographic significance and area fit; it does not design the study or write the paper.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill aaag-topic-selection --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.